CBT with Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: There Must Be A Better Way™

CBT with Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: There Must Be A Better Way™ is an APT-Accredited 3-day course from one of the UK's leading providers of mental health training. We bring the training to your own organisation, for maximum cost-effectiveness, and up to 15 people can attend. (2-day version, online course and refresher course also available.)

Executive Summary:

Deliberate non-suicidal self-injury is the intentional cause of harm to one's own body. More often, however, it is thought of as the coping with intense emotional distress by inflicting injury to oneself. It is more prevalent amongst young people, though by no means confined to them.

Non-suicidal self-injury is not attempted suicide. People who self-harm have no intention of killing themselves, at that point in time. Rather the non-suicidal self-injury is usually a way of coping with some form of distress. In attempted suicide, by contrast, the person intends to kill themselves. However, although it is important to distinguish between non-suicidal self-injury and attempted suicide, people who self-harm are in fact 10 times more likely to eventually end their own lives than people who don't.

More than 24,000 teenagers are admitted to hospital in the UK annually after deliberately harming themselves; 1 in 10 teenagers self-harms. Rates of non-suicidal self-injury in the UK have increased over the last 10 years and are amongst the highest in Europe.

Sometimes, non-suicidal self-injury is triggered by events such as: bereavement, loss of employment, imprisonment, relationship problems, and other crises, yet at other times, none of those are present, and the non-suicidal self-injury seems to be purely a very effective means of coping with tension and stress.

This course sets out to give a clear and effective approach to working with non-suicidal self-injury by providing patients with something that works better for them than harming themselves.

Who should attend?

All professionals who sometimes see people who self harm, whether 1:1 or as part of a team.

The course covers a great deal:

Engaging with the person: forming a relationship whereby the person will take notice of what you say.

Analysing why the person self harms. Although some triggers are more common than others, each person has their individual profile and it is essential to uncover it.

Putting yourself into a uniquely influential position by validating the person's emotional reactions and their behaviour without appearing to recommend non-suicidal self-injury.

Motivating the person to change: having the person reflect on their non-suicidal self-injury, identify why they might wish to stop it and become optimistic about the prospects for stopping (and doing something more constructive).

Finding something better. Importantly, many people report that non-suicidal self-injury works extremely well for them and nothing else does. We look at solving this conundrum.

The best laid plans are sometimes no more than that: how to have the person act on the plans you have jointly made.

Dealing with frustration: coping with relapse in people who are doing well; responding to people who say one thing and do another.

Long term strategy. How to get the person to look forward, to have goals and strive to achieve them. How not just to 'not self harm' but leave it right behind them.

Methods of working. Gaining support for oneself and providing support 24/7 for the person concerned.

What the course will do for you:

You will learn 'the fact and figures' relating to non-suicidal self-injury.

How to develop a relationship where the person will take real notice of what you say.

How to help the person infer their own learning points - and act on them.

Develop an understanding of why some people self-harm in spite of the distress it causes - and the reason is almost never 'attention-seeking'.

Learn a clear sequence of steps that are necessary and sufficient in helping and treating people who self harm.

Learn how to help the person focus on positive future goals in place of non-suicidal self-injury.

How to provide support for the person when you are not available, and support for yourself when you need it.

What you receive as a result of attending the training:

You will be registered as having attended the course, thereby gaining APT's Level 1 accreditation, and receive a certificate to this effect. The accreditation gives you access to online resources associated with the course.

Your registration lasts indefinitely, and your accreditation lasts for 3 years and is renewable by sitting an online refresher which also upgrades your accreditation to APT Level 2 if you are successful in the associated online exam.

Your accreditation is given value by the fact of over 100,000 people having attended APT training. See APT accreditation for full details.

How can I access this training?

Option 1: Bring the course to your organisation:

We bring this course to your own organisation a train a group of 6-15 people for a fixed, all-inclusive fee of £4,165 plus VAT for the 3-day course, or £3,050 plus VAT for the 2-day version.

Suitable for individuals or groups of professionals or whole departments / organisations. This course is available to study online - this is a great opportunity to obtain APT-quality input and develop your professional knowledge at a time that is convenient to you and your organisation.

For more information or to purchase this course online, click the button:

If you or a colleague are a senior professional (e.g. consultant psychologist) and have a talent for communication and teaching, then you are welcome to apply to become an APT-accredited tutor. You could then tutor the course - or your chosen modules from it - in your own organisation, under license.

This is not only a highly appropriate use of senior professionals, but it also saves your organisation the tutor-component of the fee (around 50%) each time you run it or your chosen modules.

To see the full benefits of this and to see whether you are eligible, click the button:

Downloadable information sheet:

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As a bona fide APT event, this course automatically has accreditation from The Association for Psychological Therapies. This means (i) that it contains the right amount of relevant information for its duration, and (ii) the information is presented in an engaging way, and in a way that will make it likely to be used after the course. APT verifies the accreditation by publishing the delegates' average ratings of relevance and presentation-quality for all its accredited courses. The accreditation is given value by over 100,000 professionals having attended APT courses.

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Feedback Ratings.

We continuously monitor the quality of our training by obtaining feedback on the two key scales of relevance and presentation from every course delegate. Below are the average ratings for the last ten runnings of this course.

Average Presentation rating: 97%

Average Relevance rating: 97%

*These statistics were last updated in April 2017.

Written Feedback.

APT prides itself on the feedback we receive about our courses. Below are just some of the great comments the There Must Be A Better Way™ course has received.

"Fantastic course … more courses like this are needed for everyone working in mental health."

"This has been the best course I have been on in 25 years of nursing. The tutor had a fantastic way of bringing the subject to life. I feel armed with skills to be able to work effectively with a service user on taking this forward. Self harm no longer sends me running to the hills."